1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic analyzing apparatus and an automatic analyzing method for performing quantitative measurement of the concentrations of chemical components of a liquid sample such as blood and urine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a biochemical automatic analyzing apparatus and an automatic analyzing method for performing quantitative measurement of the concentrations of chemical components of a liquid sample have been widely used in medical diagnosis.
Recently, as the number of cases to be processed and the number of measurement items are increased, an increase in processing capabilities of the apparatus and method is demanded.
In order to cope with this demand, Published Examined Japanese Patent Application No. 59-24380 (to be merely referred to as a cited reference hereinafter) discloses a chemical analyzing apparatus and a chemical analyzing method having characteristic features as follows.
The apparatus of this cited reference has a convey unit (control unit) for rotating or stopping rotating a plurality of reaction containers (capable of containing a liquid sample) arranged in a loop manner and a photometer for optically measuring the reaction process of the liquid sample contained in the reaction containers during rotation of the reaction containers.
More specifically, for example, a liquid sample and a reaction reagent are discharged into a first reaction container located at a discharge position, and thereafter the convey unit is driven to rotate the plurality of reaction containers counterclockwise. During this rotation, the optical characteristic value in the first reaction container which has passed across the optical path of the photometer is measured. The reaction process of the sample is detected on the basis of this optical characteristic value.
Then, when the plurality of reaction containers are stopped, a second reaction container next to the first reaction container is placed at the discharge position, and the liquid sample and the reaction reagent are discharged in the second reaction container.
Reaction containers to which injection of the liquid sample and the reagent, agitation, and measurement have been done are sequentially cleaned with cleaning water sprayed from a cleaning nozzle.
In the apparatus of the cited reference, however, when, e.g., the rotation time of the plurality of reaction containers is decreased (i.e., the rotational speed is increased) in order to improve the analyzing efficiency, the light-measuring time of a reaction containers is decreased. As a result, the light-measuring precision is considerably degraded.
When the stop time of the plurality of reaction containers is decreased in order to improve the analyzing efficiency, the cleaning precision of a reaction container after measurement is degraded. As a result, a newly discharged liquid sample is contaminated by the liquid sample attached to the previous reaction container, and the analyzing precision is considerably degraded.
In order to solve these problems, when the reaction containers are stopped, the photometer may be moved along the array of the plurality of reaction containers to detect the reaction process of the liquid sample and the reagent.
However, when a means for moving a photometric unit having a light source and a spectroscope is provided, the size of the analyzing apparatus as a whole is increased. The moving speed is limited because of the structure of the apparatus.